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His brother turned slowly toward him.
He looked younger than Benny remembered. There were fewer shadows in Tom’s eyes.
“Hey, kiddo,” said Tom. “You have any idea what happened?”
“Yeah, a zombie hit me with a stick.”
“Crazy, huh? Bet you didn’t think that could happen.”
“Guess not.” Benny touched his head. It hurt, but it was all in one piece. That surprised him. In most of his dreams his head was in a thousand pieces and he was crawling around looking for the important ones.
“How come you never told me that zoms could do that?” Benny asked.
Tom shrugged. “World’s a big, strange place, Benny. What makes you think I know everything?”
“Oh.”
“Next time somebody swings something at your head, you might want to think about ducking.”
“Hilarious. Remind me to smother you in your sleep.”
“Little too late for that, kiddo.”
Even though Tom wasn’t moving, he seemed to be a little farther away. For the first time Benny realized that there were other people in the hallways. They were indistinct, more of a sense of movement in the gray light rather than specific shapes. He thought he recognized one of them, though.
“Chong?”
The figure stopped moving, but he stood with his back to Benny.
“Tom—is that Chong?”
His brother turned and looked at the figure. Then he bent and spoke quietly to him, but Benny couldn’t hear what was said.
“Is that Chong?” Benny asked again. “Is . . . is he going with you?”
Tom patted the other figure on the shoulder and then walked toward Benny. The other person remained back in the shadows.
Tom stopped a few feet away. He looked older now, more like he did that day they all left town.
“Can I come with you too?” asked Benny.
Sadness flickered in Tom’s eyes, but he still made a joke. “No, kiddo . . . you got other places to mess up, other people to annoy.”
“Tom . . . I really miss you, man.”
“I know. Me too.”
“Is it wrong that I want to go home?”
Tom touched Benny’s face. His palm was warm. “Where’s home now?” asked Tom.
Benny shook his head. “This isn’t what we expected.”
“What did you expect?” asked Tom.
“I don’t know. I thought we’d . . . I me
an, I thought that it would be . . . ”
